A friend got in touch a few months ago with a request for some commissioned art. He and his fiance have two exceptional cats, and they had long joked together about one day getting some classy, over-the-fireplace mantel-type portraits done of the felines. As Superman and Batman. Well, with a wedding on the way, Travis decided to make good on the long-running joke and asked me if I would take on the challenge of depicting Munch and Sam as "The Man of Steel" and "The Caped Crusader," respectively. Sounded like a fun project, and a hilarious gift for a groom to give his bride on their big day.

A couple things:

First, I have basically no experience drawing/painting cats.

Second, I don't really do superheroes....

LET'S DO THIS!!!

LOL soo this is off to a weird start.

With the bones of the sketching eventually sorted out, the paintings actually came together pretty quickly. I started with Munch, the light-colored fellow, because it seemed like the easiest place to start:

Supermunch

Sam, the black cat, was a little tougher. I had a couple different options for the costume (black or blue/gray), and I experimented with both. I was initially drawn to the idea of the all black costume because I thought there could be some interesting ways to combine black fur, black costume, and shadow. But, that proved to be too difficult to sort through, and in the end I figured it would actually make for a pretty boring composition. So, I went with the blue/gray costume and wound up with this:

Batsam

And here they are together:

Evildoers beware

Each painting was done on 16"x20" watercolor block (140lbs., hot press). I used watercolor, colored pencil, Pigma pens (Graphic series), and a gold acrylic paint marker. Plenty of room for improvement, but I'm generally please with how these turned out :)